Bell Bearing Hunter | Elden Ring Wiki

My main beef with this jackass is that he has so much poise, but when you, the player wear his armor set, it doesn't even give you enough to poise through a Straight Sword R1.

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Using any sort of damage negation buffs can be massively helpful. After like 20 tries on the one in Caelid I threw on a damage negation wondrous physik and beat him on my second try with that strat. Will probably keep you from getting 2 shot which is a huge help

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Pass time to Nightfall Sit on the grace He appears. It takes 2 Scarlett Rot Breaths to get him ill. Keep your distance and watch 2/3 of his HP drained, then indulge in Star Shower ensuring your far enough from his long range spinning muddaa****a sword that breaks your stamina and kill you with 2 hits. That's it. It took me 3 attempts at level 105: 60 intelligent, 25 Faith and 20 Arcane. I'll pas on the other stats xD

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Just keep a good distance and spam bolt of gransax. Very effective. Just watch your distance.

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Merchant at the isolated shack sells unlimited poison arrows.
Mount up and turn the bearing Hunter into a pin cushion.
Takes time and very little strategy

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He exclusively deals %100 physical damage meaning any medium shield will make his jedi tricks useless. Except the "Ambush Shard but with a sword" but you can just circle-strafe it causing it to hit your shield instead.

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Just swung by Church of Vows after melting Maliketh and one of these mf's stomped me. Seems a bit... overtuned.

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I swear someone need to put the dragonbarrow version of this guy against other bosses and he would destroy them.

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Ridiculous how rare their spawn is.

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These guys are so fun to fight with a parry build. Challenging, but when you get it down they’re a blast.

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Fighting this guy with melee is a nightmare, never done the magic cheese tho and I'm proud of that

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kept having an issue with the one in the church of vows where comet azur wasn't hitting him. i was standing on one end of the entrance and he was on the other, open air between us, beam covering him, but no hits. but that sword of his can go through walls. okay.

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*Imperial March intensifies*

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Level 38 strength build with banished knight GS.
Here's how I beat the one in the merchant's shack: As it begins spawning, full charged R2, R2, poise uppercut WA. Recover some stamina and dodge its combo, two more WAS and I overwhelmed this mother****er.

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Buh dis man in the Dragon Barrow has more health then marikas half brother who has the death rune in his greatsword that he treats like it is feather in weight. AKA Maliketh.

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Killing the hunter with a critical seems to spawn the boss on the ground without the red glow and in a static position

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Evil Gundyr basicaly.

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Parrying normal melee attacks works incredibly well for these guys, dodge the shield slams and roll past when he does the corkscrew sword attack, otherwise they swing with very predictable timing!

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I'd rather fight Malenia 1000 times than fighting this cheap sucker

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so i decided to do the dragonbarrow one using melee only, it took many tries to learn the timings, got 1 shot or 2 shot more times then i care to admit. Have to say i got tempted a lot to just do it the easy way: just kite him on the horse & use ranged attacks (properly timed rock sling makes it quite trivial).
This has been my experience with many enemies i encountered in this game, fight them the 'proper' way they can be difficult to the point of frustration, fight them the other way and they are almost too easy.
For me the fights overall in this game were disappointing, they seem poorly balanced as compared to previous titles from formsoft.

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Have spawns changed? Or did they make it so killing Elemer kills the others? They aren't showing up in my world and I really need sanctuary stones and thin bones but I can't get the bearings......

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Hate these ****heads

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About the last one: jump on a rooftop and spam spells or arrows; it's a dirty way, i know, but it works.

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If you're having trouble and are impatient/easily bored by cheese like me... take a bewitching branch with you to Dragonbarrow and run out to the big doggos down the road. Bewitch one and use it as a distraction for you to set up your DOTs (rot, poison, etc) and get to kiting distance. Rinse and repeat as necessary. There are more dogs nearby if needed. Just aggro and bewitch, then run them back to the dingus. Took me two tries once I figured this out.

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Dodge in melee, into his swings; jump -> R2 every time he shield slams. Not much else other than learning timings.

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I beat the game and I'm level 173 and I still can't beat the Caelid one...

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This took soooo many attempts to beat. Finally, Great Stars + Wild Strikes ash + cold affinity, and a load of incantion buffs, and Rotten Winged Sword + Shard of Alexander Talisman did it, almost easy with that. Just hold L1 and Wild Strikes, smashes him up!

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Going on one year in game time trying to beat the one in Caelid, hope my family's doing well

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For melee users - Ironjar aromatic + Great Stars + Lionclaw ash of war makes these guys chumps. Damage is negated, your poise is high and with a few hits, you can crit them easier.

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Whoever designed this boss hates people in general and players in particular. All of his attacks are waaaay too strong, and he can cover a ton of ground with his shield rush. I’m surprised the devs didn’t give him a horse.

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Over levelled and about to finish off an alt acc first play through and am actually pleasantly surprised to find a decent challenge in the Dragonbaroow dude. That telekinetic sword **** looks so sick I don’t even mind getting my ass ploughed

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the one in Caelid feels like playing a shitty mod.

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After getting my lunch money taken a few times by the one in Caelid, he was taken out easily (but not quickly) by lightning spear. This required coming from the nearest site of grace and eliminating all the t-rex dogs and unusually surly sheep around the shack before starting the fight to allow for ample room to keep backing away. Ate two lunches today.

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gotdam the one in caelid is like 12 times more difficult than the actual boss. purely because he does so much damn damage and if you try and back off to heal he starts doing his floating sword **** and getting close to him again often entails taking even more damage

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I just got to Caelid and this dude was straight up harder than Radahn, the freaking Starscourge.

Beat him with Zweihander+8 and Cragblade after several hours. Add in the dodgeroll and heavy attack physick. 1 charged heavy and 2-3 light attacks can open him for riposte easily. Charge the heavy when he's down and try to be aggressive. If you're lucky you can bring him to 1/3 hp before Cragblade wears off. But don't bother buffing again because it takes too long. The last 3rd of his hp will be all about skill but hopefully you still have the dodgeroll physick in effect.

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The delays to his attacks are way too unpredictable. You probably can learn the timing, but easiest way to fight him:
1. Attack him with hardest hitting melee as soon as he spawns.
2. Once you've been hit, go on horse immediately and chug pots on good range.
3. Throw cost-effective magic at him from the horse from max distance of the spell. Immediately turn and run after casting, flying sword kills you on the horse if connects. This method is absolutely safe if done right, but maintaining proper spacing takes time.

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I had far more luck with faster hitting weapons with these guys. Patience and dodging is key with all of them. As others have said try to stay close by and get an attack in during at the end of their attack string or after a shield slam or weapon art. Finally, if dodge away or get knocked back and are in range of their 'dancing blade' attack just run to out distance the ranged attack to heal and reset.

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Unless you're on horseback or a different planet, ranged attacks vs this guy feels impossible to win.

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If having issues when <level 10, as they spawn in you have enough safety time to fire off a fully charged rotten breath which should proc instant rot as well as shred a decent chunk of life, then just dodge away and get on horse. Stay just close enough to keep his aggro while outside the range of his throw, and reapply rot either with bow or spell if the first doesn't kill him.

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These are some of the actual skill check bosses in ER. Without cheesing you will have to actually fight him. Yes there are openings, no you aren't spamming attacks or long cast spells, and yes he is readable.. you will die several times to this boss and your blood will be rushing like a mofo when you finally kill him. Super fun for those who enjoy the challenge and having experience in these games helps but is not necessary. Very rewarding

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THIS MOTHER****ER TOOK LIKE 800 DAMAGE FROM A FULLY CHARGED CANNON OF HAIMA WITH BUFFS WHAFHUFDHHFG

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Finally decided to actually gut up and fight these guys legit on like my 4th playthrough. I have two comments:
1. It's galaxy brain level game design that you encounter your first hunter in a 3x3 meter box, because it turns out that the best way to fight them is to stick as close as possible at all times.
2. If you get over the intimidation factor this fight is pretty much two Crucible Knights in a trenchcoat.

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As a Lv 223 mage with comet and a +25 manor tower shield, the dragonbarrow one weren't terrible. But if you don't block, he hits like a brick house. I struggled a lot more with my blood twinblade melee character. This guy is dangerous to try hitting.

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Decent way to cheese this dude is to bate his shield slam move. Position yourself behind him,
dodge from the move,
wait a half second to prevent his follow up explosion,
then attack,
then move behind him again,
rinse and repeat
Barring the occasional slip up, he'll never be able to keep up.

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That floating red ghost sword dance which homes on and hits you around corners and behind walls is as far as I am concerned a blatant cheat. Which might be okay if being anywhere close to this Everest of a man to avoid triggering it didn't instead trigger unending hit strings where any single hit is worth a flask.

So basically IMO, this boss cheats. Therefore, I cheese. I found Impaling Thrust AoW is ideal. It comes out fast so you can slip it between his barely existent openings and it poise breaks him with 3 or 4 uses. Then claim your riposte and repeat.

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Easy strategy for the bell bearing hunter in Dragonbarrow :
1. Equip Rock sling and meteorite staff
2. Allocate more flasks to FP
3. Put on gear to increase INT
4. Approcah hunter's spawning location on steed and after he shows up, turn around and jump on to the roof of the smaller shack (double jump from the raised platform)
5. Lock on to him and spam Rock sling,
6. Rinse and repeat

He often goes under the shack and becomes un-hittable - just wait for him to deaggro and he will start moving back towards his spawn location. Jump on to the higher roof and start spamming rock sling again once he is visible.

Hope this helps.

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JOHNSOULS has arrived.

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Can easily be cheesed by jumping on the shack roof with the horse

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It's a crime that his telekinesis sword slashes isn't an ash of war.

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This guy can steal all the bell bearings he wants and gets away with it, but I steal ONE ball bearing and suddenly I'm "vandalizing government aircraft"

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Fighting these guys be like:

Sit
Pass time
Stand up
Sit
Try again
Die
Loading screen

Repeat until you kill him

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Low key Kratos vibes from this guy.

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love that I have to manually change it back to night every time I want to try fighting him.

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This ****er does not stop attacking, big problem with this type of enemy in this game

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Fun fact: In the OG version of Elden Ring this guy was supposed to be an Invader type enemy, that would appear in certain places, protecting items.

Idk why they changed him to be a Night Boss tho

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this guy is so sick. i love everything about his design, feels like he came out of an old school tabletop rpg.

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Dual godskin peelers - seppuku offhand - bloodhound step mainhand / white mask / raptors black feathers / lord of bloods exultation / rotten winged sword insiginia / millicents prosthesis / claw talisman / thorny cracked tear-greenburst crystal tear physick. All dead in 3-4 jump attacks on NG+3. Roll mele attacks, bloodhound step his lightsaber attacks. The one in dragonbarrow was a *****, died more than once because i panicked and didnt jump attack right away.

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The parry strat appears workable, although some unfortunate things may still happen. At least there's that one talisman that heals on critical strike, and also it's easy enough to heal after a riposte

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2 shot mechanic is absolutely degenerate mechanic in this game.

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Wait do i need to kill turtle bro for the church of vows hunter too spawn?

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Idk what everyone in ranting about this guy is really ****ing easy lol.

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I noticed many people here are having trouble with this guy. I recommend using a Cleanrot Knight sword at +12 and a Blue-Gold Kite Shield +15 since those two personally helped me beat him. He is vulnerable to Pierce Damage, so try out the various thrust Weapons available, Heavy Thrusting Swords are especially effective, even more so when paired with Lightning since Elemar is also vulnerable to Lightning.

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For Dragonbarrow one. Rotten Breath on horseback. Add some Blackflame balls if u bored. Keep distance.

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Used sword of st. trina +5. As he spawns, opened with a heavy attack, 3 hits, dodged, hit, he sleeps, wailed on him a few more times, staggered, heavy attack and finished.

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Why the hell are these petty merchant killers so ridiculously overtuned? Sure they look like towering shadowy medieval/fantasy Sith Lords, but at the end of the day they are basically just edgy shopkeeper muggers yet for some reason they are some of the worst bosses in the whole game.

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The teleport -> go AFK -> "why are my runes at 0?" Boss.

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I eventually learned to fight these bastards head on. Carian Retaliation and a strong kite shield is an absolute must. Parry, parry again, riposte, dodge the red attacks, and have a weapon strong enough to do more than 2% chip damage. I got so used to fighting them that I've started to enjoy the fights, looking forward to more in NG+.

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I can't believe I did it the normal way, I just rolled into his melee attacks, and considered his red attacks also be melee, the only time I was retreating was when he was using the shield bash at your feet, but if you can get asap close to him, he will resume to his melee sequence again, and just dodge the strikes, I used the Moonveil build, and instead of attacking normally, I'd just used one Transient Moon in beetwen his wind ups chain melee attacks, also, try to be patient when he's down for a critical strike, it's one of the most damaging attacks on him.

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input reading bastard. I toughed it out with a greashield + barricade AOW and the Epee, but anything that requires you to stand still for even a second unguarded is an uphill battle.

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Elden ring is my first fromsoft game and my first video game in general (not including browser games).

i beat the Warmaster shack one with dodging + lions claw but it was tough and pretty sweaty.

For the liurnia one I spammed Volcano pots + Dragonmaw with a little lightning spear and it was quite effective. i used Leaden & opaline tears, boiled crab, dragon crest shield talisman. Dodge rolled a lot

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I beat him by stacking damage negation, I used Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman, Lionel's Armor(anything with high slash absorbtion works), Opaline Hardtear, Blackflame Protection(you can use Boiled Crab instead, it's only a 5% difference) and Leaden Hardtear for poise. You can also use Golden Vow, I just forgot.

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This guy moves 2x faster than the Nameless King in DS3 wtf

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Darth Vader hasn't been the same since herba was legalized

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The Caelid Dragonbarrow one could probably solo Mohg with how overtuned that bastard is.

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Night maiden's mist worked amazingly on the bell bearing hunter at the merchant shack in dragonbarrow. It eats his health away as he walks through it making me just let him slowly walk to me as I cast my mist.

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I can't get him to spawn no matter what I do. Do you have to be further in the game to spawn him?

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More like Ball Breaking Hunter or Blood Vessel Bursting Hunter.

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I you want to fight him fair and square like me (no summon / no cheese strat), I found out that the block + counter / riposte strategy was the best for me.

Since he always attacks with 3 or 4 hits, you have to dodge 1 or 2 and then block and counter the last. Rince and repeat until he eventually gets open for a critical.
Stamina management is the key. There some items and talismans that increase stamina bar or regen which can really help against him.

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Don't feel bad about cheesing this dude, if he doesn't play fair you sure as hell shouldn't be worried about not playing fair with him.

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i love people's strategy in the comments is most of the time a cheese/exploit strat and then they say he's not that hard. no poison, no torrent, no flame of the red manes, actually try to fight this guy normally and youll find that this game has very noticeable skidmarks of ennemies

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i wish i enjoyed his fight more, his moveset kinda forces you to play passively, which is so boring

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Easy cheese strategy is to climb on the merchant hut roof on torrent and spam him with arrows or throwables, his attacks cannot reach there. He will lose track of you and return to spawn if he gets inside the hut, at which point you can craft more stuff to spam him with. Might take a bit but I finally managed to beat isolated and hermit merchant ones with this strategy.

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i really like fighting these guys but the absolute bastard can do a whole string of attacks and then start a new string before you can finish the heal animation. should not be like that. it i get hit and then dodge an entire string of attacks then you should have a second to heal before he starts up more attacks. youre just not allowed to heal, ever. i still like him though

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I tried for two days to kill this absolute ******* in caelid. I even fully upgraded nightrider glaive just for this fight. I tried forever, until I tried on torrent and then I killed him first try. Just circle around him and away from his lightsaber throws and get a jab in here and there. Also used exalted flesh. I run a pure strength build with bullgoat armor.

I cannot understate the relief I felt when he finally moaned and died.

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This damn jerk almost made me think that Crucible Knights weren't so bad afterall, this bastard just feels like he was designed to be a giant **** you to the player and was intended to be a cheap infuriating jackass. Obnoxious range, can kill you in a few hits even if you have high vigor and good protection, annoying delays specifically made to piss you off, ungodly high poise, tanky, resistant to most damage, an awful grab attack thats extremely delayed has a giant hitbox and bs range that likely almost one shots you if it catches you, don't forget the obnoxious gap-closers that can hit you even if you're 60 feet away from him, yeah this scumlord just represents almost all of my most hated things in Elden Ring stuck together to form one aggravating, downright cheap shitlord of a boss, i apologize for the rant, but i just hate this cheap bastard with a passion.

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Meteoric ore blade is a godsend, just start doing charged R2s as they are spawning in and and they should be knocked down in 2-4 hits for some massive crit damage. Flame of the redmanes also works.

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For the Caelid version, use any of the multi-shot homing spells, preferably Stars of Ruin. Jump onto Torrent before you get close to where it causes him to spawn. Fire off a spell, and back off, doing laps around the merchant's hut. He'll never touch you. For all other versions - with the exception of his true form, Elmer - use Loretta's Greatbow or Mastery, or Cannon of Haima, if you're a spelluser. If you're melee, he's an utter chump - as with many things - to bloodloss. Any decently upgraded katanas or, of all things, Varre's Bouquet for the humiliation factor, will wreck him. Just whatever you do, do NOT try to stunlock him, it just won't work. Also, beware of his grab - his left hand will briefly glow red before he does it - the hitbox on it is completely broken as it can & will land even if you're in the middle of a roll. Also, his long range triple-sword swing attack tracks you, so if you're on much higher/lower ground, don't expect that to save you at all. Lastly, that same attack ignores walls and/or any obstacles between him & you. If he uses the attack it will hit you through anything.

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For some reason I find it difficult to dodge this big boy's grab attack. Either it's broken or I suck or could be both which all results in me getting grabbed.

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He's nearly deaf and has huge blind spots, poison proc him with an incant on repeat to cheese

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1- set in grace
2- pass time: until nightfall
2- leave grace.
3- set down again.
4- leave grace.
5- head toward the boss
6- die.
7- wait for loading
8- and repeat
...These, these steps right here are the true boss.

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The hit box on that grab attack is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen in a video game.

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One of those bosses who i will not hesitate to cheese and use my cheapest tactics possible to just get rid of him asap, this ahole makes my blood boil, i absolutely hate his guts.

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I killed them using arrows (regular + poison). Get far enough away and their AI becomes somewhat broken and they slowly retreat back toward base in a straight line. They are just not worth any more effort than this, considering how brutal they are and paltry the reward is.

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holy crap i just beat him (caelid) i broke his poise 4 times

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the fact he can 1 shot me makes me so f**king mad

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ok this is pissing me off the bell bearing hunter is the worse boss so far for me

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darth vader is here beware stormtroopers

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The freaking stun on this ****er everytime he gets a hit.

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This things spawn rate, range, and infinite poise are an exercise in frustration I will not condone.

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Honestly they should have saved the flying sword stuff for a second phase, imagine fighting this guy who seems very normal at first and then suddenly starts doing the sword magic stuff at half-health. It would be a DRASTIC change to the flow of the fight.

Also I'm not a huge fan of the nighttime only bosses in general, I don't like dying to them, not because I don't want to get better, but because of how tedious it is to get back to the fight as you have to reset the time of day back to nightfall at the Site of Grace just to make an attempt on said boss. It's just tedious busywork that makes dying to the nighttime only bosses more annoying than it needs to be.

If you could choose the time of day that you went back to after dying instead of it being only in the morning I wouldn't have this issue.

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